How to turn off AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search

We ran the same search, "how does caffeine affect sleep," four ways on October 30, 2026: plain, with the Web filter, with the udm=14 address and with "-ai" added. Plain search showed an AI Overview at the top. The other three didn't.

1. Use the Web filter

Google added a Web filter in 2024 that shows "only text-based links without features like AI Overviews." It's the one method Google itself documents.

1. Search as usual.
2. Under the search box, look for Web in the row of tabs. If it isn't there, click More and choose Web.
3. The page reloads with links only.

You have to click it again on every search, because Google opens new results on the All tab.

2. Make AI-free Google your default (udm=14)

When you click Web, Google adds udm=14 to the address. If you tell your browser to search with that address, every search from the address bar opens on the Web results, with no AI Overview and no AI summary on top.

In our test the links themselves didn't change: the first eight results came back in the same order as in the normal search. Only the AI Overview and the other boxes between the links were gone.

In Chrome

1. Open Settings, then Search engine, then Manage search engines and site search.
2. Next to Site search, click Add.
3. Name it "Google Web," set the shortcut to gw, and paste https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s as the URL.
4. Click the three-dot menu next to the new entry and choose Make default.

In Microsoft Edge

1. Open Settings, then Privacy, search, and services, then Address bar and search, then Manage search engines.
2. Click Add and enter the same name, shortcut and URL.
3. Open the new entry's menu and choose Make default.

Firefox lets you add a search engine with the same URL under Settings, then Search.

udm=14 is the same parameter Google's Web filter uses, but Google doesn't promise to keep it. It worked when we tried it. If it ever stops working, clicking Web by hand still will.

3. Add "-ai" to your search

Typing -ai at the end of a query also removed the AI Overview in our test. It's handy on any device, including phones, because there's nothing to set up.

"-ai" is a search operator. Google reads it as "leave out pages that contain the word AI," so it changes which pages you get. Four of our top five links were different. The National Institutes of Health study that ranked second in the normal search was gone, and a university page had taken its spot. We'd use it for quick lookups and switch to the Web filter for anything we were researching, since udm=14 kept our first eight results in their original order.

What works on a phone

The Google app has no setting for AI Overviews. Safari on iPhone only lets you choose from a fixed list of search engines, and Chrome on Android and iPhone doesn't let you type a custom search address. That leaves two options that work everywhere:

• Tap Web in the row of tabs after you search. Swipe the row sideways or look under More if you don't see it.
• Add -ai to the query, knowing that it also changes which pages you get.

What doesn't work

• The "AI in Search" switch in Search Labs. It controls whether you get new AI experiments, not AI Overviews.
• Turning off Web & App Activity. It stops Google from saving your searches to your account. It doesn't change what appears on the results page.

And AI Mode?

AI Mode can't be switched off either, but unlike AI Overviews it never appears on its own. It runs only when you open the AI Mode tab, go to google.com/ai or click "Dive deeper in AI Mode" under an AI Overview. With the udm=14 setup you'll still see an AI Mode tab above your results; you just never have to click it. If you're curious what it does before you avoid it, our Google AI Mode guide walks through a real search.

Questions about AI Overviews